The Use of Mebendazole in COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Retrospective Single Center Study

Abstract: Hindawi Advances in Virology Volume 2022, Article ID 3014686, 6 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3014686 Research Article The Use of Mebendazole in COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Retrospective Single Center Study Mostafa W. Galal,1 Mahmoud Ahmed,2 Yanqiu Shao,3,4 Chao Xing,4,5 Wael Ali,6 Abd Elhamid Baly,7 Abdallah Elfky,8 Khaled Amer,9 John Schoggins,10 Hesham A. Sadek ,11,2 and Zeinab N. Gobara 7 1 School of Medicine, Aim Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Department of Internal Medicine Cardiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 3 Department of Statistical Science, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA 4 Department of Population and Data Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 5 McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and Department of Bioinformatics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 6 Egyptian Center for Research in Regenerative Medicine, Cairo, Egypt 7 Department of Clinical Pathology, Cura El-Nasr Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt 8 Department of Radiology, Cura El-Nasr Hospitals, Helwan university, Cairo, Egypt 9 Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 10 Epartments Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 11 Departments Biophysics and Molecular Biology and Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA 2 Correspondence should be addressed to Zeinab N. Gobara; zgobaramd@gmail.com Received 5 February 2022; Revised 16 May 2022; Accepted 26 August 2022; Published 10 December 2022 Academic Editor: Shih-Chao Lin Copyright © 2022 Mostafa W. Galal et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. An in-silico screen identifed mebendazole with potential antiviral activity that could be a repurposed drug against SARSCoV-2. Mebendazole is a well-tolerated and cheap antihelminthic agent that is readily available worldwide and thus could be a therapeutic tool in the fght against COVID-19. Methods. Tis is an observational retrospective study of PCR-confrmed COVID-19 patients who received mebendazole with the intention-to-treat. Te study included an inpatient cohort (157 inpatients) and an outpatient cohort (185 outpatients). Of the 157 inpatients and 185 outpatients, 68 (43.3%) and 94 (50.8%) received mebendazole, respectively. Patients who presented within the same timeframe but did not receive mebendazole were used as controls. Patients received standard-ofcare treatment including remdesivir, dexamethasone, and anticoagulants as deemed necessary by the treating physician. Te following clinical outcomes were evaluated: for the inpatient cohort, length of stay (LOS) at the hospital, need for ventilation (combined invasive and noninvasive), and mortality; for the outpatient cohort, time to symptom resolution, need for hospitalization, and mortality. Results. For the inpatient cohort, the median age did not difer between the treatment and control groups; 62 (56, 67) vs. 62 (56, 68), P, and there was a comparable proportion of males in both groups; 43 (63%) vs. 55 (62%), P � 0.85. Te hospital LOS was 3.5 days shorter in the treatment group compared to the..